HUNGRY GERALD

Jewish kashrut laws forbid mixing dairy products with meat. So, “fleisich” (meat) restaurants are the hearty opposite to “Dairy Restaurants”. These meat oriented (some kosher and some not) spots serve steaks, brisket, chopped liver, broiled calf’s liver, chicken in the pot, sweetbreads, brains, duck, turkey, etc. There are plenty of kosher meat restaurants in New York but HG finds them pedestrian and lacking the verve of their predecessors. Sammy’s Roumanian, the schmaltz and vodka temple of Jewish drunkenness, garlic, noise and music still exists—original location closed and now it’s on Stanton Street (Lower East Side). It isn’t cheap to get drunk at Sammy’s—ice enclosed vodka costs $169-$150 a bottle. Many, many decades ago, HG and beloved late father, Harry Freeman, ate at cheap hole in the wall “Roumanian Broilings” eateries. These served garlic and schmaltz drenched “karnatzlach” (cigar shaped hamburgers), chopped liver, beer and whiskey. (Favorite hangouts of Italian mobsters). Best white tablecloth restaurants were Moskowiz and Lupowitz on the Lower East side, Lou G. Siegel in the Garment Center and Gluckstern’s on W. 46th Street (all but Sammy’s are long closed.) All of these restaurants encouraged alcohol overindulgence. Nothing better than an appetizer of cold garlic and schmaltz brains with Jack Daniels and a beer chaser. Vishniac and strong Russian tea at the end of the meal.